Ann Lau places candles by a portable memorial which demonstators placed at the front door of the Chinese Consulate in LA to mark the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, June 4, 2004. (Getty Images)

(Newser)
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Twenty years ago today, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times was in Tiananmen Square, sweating in fear and watching as "'People’s China' opened fire on its people." The soldiers had shot at ambulances, too, so no one was helping the wounded—except the rickshaw drivers. One driver, tears in his eyes, stopped so Kristof could photograph his cart full of bodies. He “perhaps couldn’t have defined democracy, but he had risked his life to advance it.”

It was a night filled with acts of courage. So what happened? Why are there no protests today? Kristof theorizes that the people “were demanding not precisely a parliamentary democracy, but a better life—and they got it.” But with an educated middle class comes political aspirations. China may soon find itself on the same path Taiwan and South Korea took. Democracy could come without a bullet being fired.

look back to 1999 it was Phil Graham that killed the golden goose, in the name of greed.

gilgordan

Jun 4, 2009 8:14 AM CDT

PaleRider, time to open the mind and eyes, the founding fathers became founding fathers to preserve their wealth, and use cheap labor cost to gain more wealth, rather than support a non benevolence dictating King. The forms of governance that have proven the test of centuries are not Republics, they are benevolent dictatorships. Further Pale Rider where were you when our leaders decided move our national from a producing sovereignty to a consuming one. That started around 1970, and you know why? You got it Cheap labor cost!!